BLOG ARCHIVE FOR February 2015

You fell in love with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and consider yourself a card-holding Wayfarer. You’ve been dying to read A Closed and Common Orbit. In fact, the process may have aged you a few years. Now meet the person responsible for it all on Becky Chambers’ UK tour.
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It’s not long now before Daniel Polansky’s brilliant new fantasy, A City Dreaming, publishes… and in today’s fantastic free short story, he’ll introduce you to M, the beer-drinking, pirate-fighting (sometimes) protagonist, as he explores the UK. Bad food, bum bags and dragons… what more could you ask for?
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Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, On Writing is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. We’ve gathered some of Stephen King’s top tips in one handy infographic.
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Remakes, we all love to complain about them. And, let’s be frank, some of them are at best unnecessary, and at worst an insult to the precious memory of the original and a blight on humanity. BUT, they can be great, and today we’re celebrating our favourites.
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First published between 1984 and 1986, the three books of The Fionavar Tapestry (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road) frequently appear on lists of the top fantasy series of all time. Guy Gavriel Kay’s trilogy has been quoted as a key influence on many later writers. No wonder, as Kay had unique access to the font of modern fantasy: in 1974 he was retained by the Tolkien estate to assist Christopher Tolkien in the editorial construction of The Silmarillion. The Fionavar Tapestry emerged a decade later but though Locus magazine termed it ‘the essence of High Fantasy,’ Kay determinedly set out to explore what could be achieved in the genre beyond Tolkien.
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In Daniel Polansky’s new novel A City Dreaming, a drifter with limited magical ability called M weaves his way (usually somewhat drunkenly…) through a New York filled with hipster zombies, Wall Street wolves and pocket steampunk universes. In this extract, he discovers that the sudden appearance of dozens of independent coffee shops in his neighbourhood may be due to darker forces than gentrification…
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Over the past few years the 80’s has shown that it is making a comeback through TV, books and comics in a massive way, Stranger Things and Paper Girls being released this year has shown and proved that actually the 80’s is a time no one could forget. Although I never got to actually see the 80’s because I hadn’t been born until 1994 I like to think my general knowledge through binge watching 21 jump street and anything starring Molly Ringwald gives me a good idea of what I missed.
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